orrery
Americannoun
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orreries
plural
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an apparatus for representing the positions, motions, and phases of the planets, satellites, etc., in the solar system.
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any of certain similar machines, as a planetarium.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of orrery
First recorded in 1705–15; named after Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery (1676–1731), for whom it was first made
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The uplighted orrery glows on the faces of two boys who lean into the circuits of solar orbit as it once glowed on the faces of the shepherds and magi at the crib in Bethlehem.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 14, 2026
It wasn't until mechanical engineer Derek Staines retired in 2004 that he made his first orrery - a mechanical model of the solar system.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2020
Opera powers He’s orrery, so her time in Hong Kong, like every other city in which she performs, is fleeting.
From Time ● Oct. 24, 2017
Meetings were like an orrery, that complex mechanical model of the solar system that shows the movement of the planets.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 12, 2017
A few days ago, when I was communing with the orrery, I was trying so hard to find the single pivotal moment that set my life on its path.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
One of the first known orreries is the Antikythera mechanism, from between 150BC and 100BC, which was discovered in 1900 in a wreck off the Greek island of that name.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2020
He would put on planetarium-esque light shows for his daughters, and his studio was filled with orreries — Renaissance-era models of the solar system.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2019
Wands, brass orreries and hermetic inscriptions abound, along with many other symbols of the mystic traditions Crowley draws on in his acclaimed short stories and novels.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 28, 2016
Cosmic models also have a surprisingly long technological prehistory, involving astronomical clocks, walk-in revolving globes and giant mechanical orreries, many astonishingly complex.
From Nature
You admire those newly invented machines, called orreries, because Lord Orrery invented them by imitating the maker.
From Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume by
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
